


Festival of the Father

by MSquared79



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Family, Gen, Ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 22:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MSquared79/pseuds/MSquared79
Summary: Jaime faces the ghost of Lord Tywin Lannister





	Festival of the Father

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd and belated for Father's Day. Just ran through my brain yesterday.

The time of the year for the Festival of the Father had always been a complicated one for Ser Jaime Lannister. The Festival of the Mother was easier, by far; even in all the years since Lady Joanna’s death, it was still a religious holiday Jaime kept. It may have just been to go to a sept and light a candle, but he still went.

However, even when Tywin Lannister had lived, in the years after Robert’s Rebellion, Jaime had a hard time honoring his father on that day. The Father was supposed to protect his children. That was something Tywin had never done. He stood in judgement of them, as that face of the god was charged to do, but he never sought justice or had the wisdom to recognize it.

And every year since Tyrion had shot him twice with a crossbow in the privy, honoring the Father was more difficult. When Jaime had finally arrived at Winterfell, preparing to face the Army of the dead, it was nigh impossible. 

Perhaps that was why, on the eve of the feast, Jaime dreamt of Tywin Lannister. That was odd, something he had not done these past few years. But what other explanation was there when he opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of his mother’s tomb in the Hall of Heroes at Casterly Rock. What else could it be when he heard that sneering voice, derisively saying, “There is the son that avenged my death!”

Jaime let out a sigh. “Perhaps if you didn’t despise your heir to the degree that you did, your death would not have needed to be avenged.”

“My heir? I should have tossed him into the sea after he killed your mother,” Tywin replied as he came to stand next to Jaime in front of his wife’s tomb. “And why was my body not brought back here, to rest beside her?”

“That was Cersei’s decision,” Jaime told him. “She thought as you spent the better part of your life in service to the capital, it was only right you should have been buried at the Great Sept of Baelor. And beside, I did not think there was a place for you here.”

“I was the Lord of the Rock, Warden of the West, descendant of the Kings of the Rock. This was where I should have been. What made you think otherwise?”

“Because this is called the Hall of Heroes, Father,” Jaime reminded his father with a roll of his eyes. “And heroes don’t order the murder of innocent children.” Jaime knew those green eyes were trying to drill holes into him, but he ignored it. Still staring straight ahead, he continued. “And not only did you order it, but you took pride in it!”

“They would have been the rally point behind any attempt against Robert. Against your sister. Would you have given that opportunity to our enemies, to allow the grandson of Aerys to live?” The coldness of his voice absolutely chilled Jaime, more than any wind blowing through Winterfell.

“And wrapping the remains in the crimson Lannister cloaks. I have to say, that was a fine touch! As if the cloaks could hide the blood that had been spilled.” Now it was Jaime who was dipping into sarcasm. “You know what the supreme irony of all that was?” Now he faced his father’s ghost. “You lost.”

“Did I?” Tywin asked. “My grandsons were kings. My daughter now sits on the Iron Throne. How is that a failure?”

For a moment, there was silence. And then, Jaime laughed.

Any retort his father may have shot back was lost as Jaime gripped his sides, unable to stop. When he got control of himself back, he saw the confused look on the dead man’s face. “You mean you really don’t know? You’ve not seen what you have wrought?” That got Jaime thinking. “Are there really Seven Heavens and Seven Hells? And if so, where exactly are you?” If the ghost of Tywin Lannister did not know what the current state of affairs was in the Seven Kingdoms, he must truly be in the deepest of Hells. And rightly so.

“You were outmaneuvered by a noble Northern clod, Lord Tywin. You think you ended Aerys’ line, Prince Rhaegar’s line, but you did not,” Jaime began. “You see, for sixteen years, the true Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, the true King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men was hidden in plain sight at Winterfell.”

Tywin’s eyes narrowed. “How?”

“Rhaegar didn’t kidnap or rape Lyanna Stark,” Jaime said.

“Yes, I knew that. I saw the boy grow to a man before my eyes. I knew he’d never do such a thing,” Tywin agreed matter-of-factly.

Now it was Jaime’s turn to glare. “If you knew that, why did you not say anything? Why did you not try to tame the storm that broke out as word of Lady Lyanna’s ‘abduction’ spread?” Sadly, Jaime knew the answer without his father saying a word. “You wanted it to happen.”

“Your sister was destined to be a queen. I knew that doing nothing was the best way to achieve that.”

“At the cost of thousands of live?! At the cost of the end of the Targaryen dynasty? Were you truly that self-centered?” Jaime was so disgusted he had to walk away to calm himself.

“I put the family first!” his father shot back. “Everything I did was for the FAMILY!”

Jaime whirled around. “Bullshit. You have never cared for this family. If you did, you would have seen the opportunity Aerys gave you by naming me to the Kingsguard. Tyrion was always going to be the better Lord of the Rock than I. He may be short in staurie, but he is a giant in cunning. Far greater than you, in fact.”

“Tyrion was a curse upon our house. His goal was always to end us. He succeeded, killing me and taking my grandchildren with him,” Tywin said calmly.

Those were words similar to what Cersei had said over the years. That their brother had signed the death warrants for Myrcella and Tommen with the blood of their father. “If you had not had killed Elia Martell killed, Myrcella would have never died. If you had not sought to control Tommen, he would have never died! And Joffrey? I loved him because he was my son, but he was a nasty cunt. Olenna Tyrell was right about that.”

In life, his father occasionally made the decision to ignore unpleasant truths. By the tone of his next question, he seemed to still have that talent, even in death. “Why do you think I lost, in the end?”

“Because Ned Stark lied.” Tywin actually waved him off, but Jaime went on to explain, “He lied to Robert. He lied to Catelyn. He lied to his sons and daughters. And he lied to his nephew, the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar.” He could not help the smile spread across his face. “There was no tavern wench or whore that he laid with. Ashara Dayne had never warmed his bed. There was never a Bastard of Winterfell.”

“Jon Snow?” There was genuine disbelief in the voice of the spirit who had been his father.

Jaime nodded. “For twenty plus years, I was always haunted by the question, why was Ser Arthur Dayne there in Dorne? Why had Rhaegar not taken him, and Oswell and Ser Gerold? Now I know the truth. They were protecting their princess, the woman who, after the Trident, and the Sack, carried in her belly the true King. Ned discovered the truth, too late to save any of them--his sister, my brothers-in-arms, but he did save his sovereign. And he knew that, if the truth was ever discovered, you or Robert would have made sure the child did not live.” He took a step closer to his father. “Do you deny that, had you known that Lyanna had birthed Rhaegar’s legitimate son, you would have sent assassins after the babe?” But he had his answer already. Tywin Lannister knew there was not kidnapping, that the entire rebellion was built on a lie by Robert Baratheon.

“Everything I did, I did for the family,” Tywin Lannister’s ghost repeated.

“We didn’t want it,” Jaime said. “And the only one who did turned into a madwoman the likes I which I have already seen one time too many.”

Now Jaime stood back, drawing himself to his full height. “I swore a vow when I became a knight, when I became a Kingsguard. Because of our family, I nearly lost every ounce of honor I ever had. But no more. For however long I may still have, I am Ser Jaime Lannister, Kingsguard to his Grace, Jaehaerys, Third of his Name and Daenerys, First of her Name. Sovereign Rulers of the Seven Kingdoms, King and Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Protectors of the Realms.”

He saw the disgust in his Father’s eyes, but didn’t allow any more words from him. “Jon and Daenerys signed a proclamation after I arrived at Winterfell. ‘We, Jaehaerys and Daenerys, declare that House Lannister is free from the shadow of Lord Tywin, absolving them of any of his crimes committed by him on our House, Stark and Targaryen’.” It was something he had memorized for some reason, after it had been handed to him by Tyrion. “It is solely on Lord Tywin Lannister, the crimes of the murders of Their Graces, King Robb and Queen Talisa of the North, Lady Catelyn Stark and the bannermen of the North and Riverlands. It is solely on Lord Tywin Lannister, the crimes of rape and pillage of the city of King’s Landing, the rape and murder of Princess Elia of House Martell and Targaryen and the murders of Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon of House Targaryen. It is on Lord Tywin Lannister, Lady Cersei Lannister and Joffrey Waters, the crimes of murder against the bastards of Robert of House Baratheon--”

“I did not order that!” he protested.

“You’d have approved though,” Jaime smirked. “Not one of those children would have been able to inherit. Robert recognized only one or two. He was probably unaware of the majority of them. But one survived and for his loyalty, he has been named Lord of the Stormlands as Gendry of House Baratheon. A blacksmith, by trade, and bound in marriage to House Stark. She told me you recognized her as a girl and protected her at Harrenhal. Your cupbearer was Lady Arya Stark.”

Now Jaime grew tired. He’d confronted the demon of his past but one last shadow of that remained. Before he forced his physical body to wake, he imparted one last piece of information he had to his father. “And there was a reason I killed Aerys. Ned Stark was too presumptuous to ask and you too too arrogant. But the reason I thrust my sword into my king was to not only save the city from the caches of wildfire he had laid out under King’s Landing, it was to save you.” Tywin’s ghost registered a note of surprise as it became paler. “The King realized you had betrayed him and demanded I bring him your head. I was forced, at seventeen, to choose between my vows to my king and my allegiance to my family. Sometime, I think I chose wrong.”

Without another word, he turned away, walking out of the Hall of Heroes, Tywin Lannister’s baritone growing softer and softer with every step, until it was no more than a whisper. 

Jaime awoke and rolled over on his side. There, with a naked back facing him, he kissed the soft skin, waking his companion in the bed. She rolled over, fully awake, and narrowed her eyes. “I know that look, Ser Jaime. What is going on through that mind of yours?” Lady Brienne of Tarth asked.

“It’s the Festival of the Father today, is it not?” he asked.

She lifted herself onto her elbow, some of the fur sliding away to reveal a soft, pale breast. “It is,” she answered cautiously. 

“Tell me about him,” Jaime requested. “I want to know what your father is like.”

“Will you tell me of your father? There have been many...stories,” she replied.

But Jaime shook his head. “They are all true and need not be repeated. I’d like to know...what a real father was like. One who did care for his child, loved her for who she chose to be.”

So Jaime and Brienne stayed in bed the rest of the morning, where she told him about Selwyn Tarth. Jaime grew jealous, hearing about the man she spoke of with love. But when she finished, he realized that her’s was a man to truly be honored on such a day.


End file.
